Little Thumb

Charles Perrault

Once upon a time there lived a woodcutter and his wife; they had seven
children, all boys. The eldest was but ten years old, and the youngest
only seven. People were astonished that the woodcutter had had so many
children in such a short time, but his wife was very fond of children, and
never had less than two at a time

They were very poor, and their seven children inconvenienced them greatly,
because not one of them was able to earn his own way. They were especially
concerned, because the youngest was very sickly. He scarcely ever spoke a
word, which they considered to be a sign of stupidity, although it was in
truth a mark of good sense. He was very little, and when born no bigger
than one's thumb, for which reason they called him Little Thumb.

The poor child bore the blame of everything that went wrong in the house.
Guilty or not, he was always held to be at fault. He was, notwithstanding,
more cunning and had a far greater share of wisdom than all his brothers
put together. And although he spoke little, he listened well.

There came a very bad year, and the famine was so great that these poor
people decided to rid themselves of their children. One evening, when the
children were all in bed and the woodcutter was sitting with his wife at
the fire, he said to her, with his heart ready to burst with grief, "You
see plainly that we are not able to keep our children, and I cannot see
them starve to death before my face. I am resolved to lose them in the
woods tomorrow, which may very easily be done; for, while they are busy in
tying up the bundles of wood, we can leave them, without their noticing."

"Ah!" cried out his wife; "and can you yourself have the heart to take
your children out along with you on purpose to abandon them?"

In vain her husband reminded her of their extreme poverty. She would not
consent to it. Yes, she was poor, but she was their mother. However, after
having considered what a grief it would be for her to see them perish with
hunger, she at last consented, and went to bed in tears.

Little Thumb heard every word that had been spoken; for observing, as he
lay in his bed, that they were talking very busily, he got up softly, and
hid under his father's stool, in order to hear what they were saying
without being seen. He went to bed again, but did not sleep a wink all the
rest of the night, thinking about what he had to do. He got up early in
the morning, and went to the riverside, where he filled his pockets with
small white pebbles, and then returned home.

They all went out, but Little Thumb never told his brothers one syllable
of what he knew. They went into a very thick forest, where they could not
see one another at ten paces distance. The woodcutter began his work, and
the children gathered up the sticks into bundles. Their father and mother,
seeing them busy at their work, slipped away from them without being seen,
and returned home along a byway through the bushes.

When the children saw they had been left alone, they began to cry as
loudly as they could. Little Thumb let them cry, knowing very well how to
get home again, for he had dropped the little white pebbles all along the
way. Then he said to them, "Don't be afraid, brothers. Father and mother
have left us here, but I will lead you home again. Just follow me."

They did so, and he took them home by the very same way they had come into
the forest. They dared not go in, but sat down at the door, listening to
what their father and mother were saying.

The woodcutter and his wife had just arrived home, when the lord of the
manor sent them ten crowns, which he had owed them a long while, and which
they never expected. This gave them new life, for the poor people were
almost famished. The woodcutter sent his wife immediately to the
butcher's. As it had been a long while since they had eaten, she bought
three times as much meat as would be needed for two people.

When they had eaten, the woman said, "Alas! Where are our poor children
now? They would make a good feast of what we have left here; but it was
you, William, who decided to abandon them. I told you that we would be
sorry for it. What are they now doing in the forest? Alas, dear God, the
wolves have perhaps already eaten them up. You are very inhuman to have
abandoned your children in this way."

The woodcutter at last lost his patience, for she repeated it more than
twenty times, that they would be sorry for it, and that she was right for
having said so. He threatened to beat her if she did not hold her tongue.
It was not that the woodcutter was less upset than his wife, but that she
was nagging him. He, like many others, was of the opinion that wives
should say the right thing, but that they should not do so too often.

She spoke this so very loud that the children, who were at the gate, began
to cry out all together, "Here we are! Here we are!"

She immediately ran to open the door, and said, hugging them, "I am so
glad to see you, my dear children; you are very hungry and tired. And my
poor Peter, you are horribly dirty; come in and let me clean you."

Now, you must know that Peter was her eldest son, whom she loved above all
the rest, because he had red hair, as she herself did.

They sat down to supper and ate with a good appetite, which pleased both
father and mother. They told them how frightened they had been in the
forest, speaking almost always all together. The parents were extremely
glad to see their children once more at home, and this joy continued while
the ten crowns lasted; but, when the money was all gone, they fell again
into their former uneasiness, and decided to abandon them again. This time
they resolved to take them much deeper into the forest than before.

Although they tried to talk secretly about it, again they were overheard
by Little Thumb, who made plans to get out of this difficulty as well as
he had the last time. However, even though he got up very early in the
morning to go and pick up some little pebbles, he could not do so, for he
found the door securely bolted and locked. Their father gave each of them
a piece of bread for their breakfast, and he fancied he might make use of
this instead of the pebbles, by throwing it in little bits all along the
way; and so he put it into his pocket.

Their father and mother took them into the thickest and most obscure part
of the forest, then, slipping away by an obscure path, they left them
there. Little Thumb was not concerned, for he thought he could easily find
the way again by means of his bread, which he had scattered along the way;
but he was very much surprised when he could not find so much as one
crumb. The birds had come and had eaten every bit of it up. They were now
in great distress, for the farther they went the more lost and bewildered
they became.

Night now came on, and there arose a terrible high wind, which made them
dreadfully afraid. They fancied they heard on every side of them the
howling of wolves coming to eat them up. They scarcely dared to speak or
turn their heads. After this, it rained very hard, which drenched them to
the skin; their feet slipped at every step they took, and they fell into
the mire, getting them muddy all over. Their hands were numb with cold.

Little Thumb climbed to the top of a tree, to see if he could discover
anything. Turning his head in every direction, he saw at last a glimmering
light, like that of a candle, but a long way from the forest. He came
down, but from the ground, he could no longer see it no more, which
concerned him greatly. However, after walking for some time with his
brothers in the direction where he had seen the light, he perceived it
again as he came out of the woods.

They came at last to the house where this candle was, but not without many
fearful moments, for every time they walked down into a hollow they lost
sight of it. They knocked at the door, and a good woman opened it. She
asked them what they wanted.

Little Thumb told her they were poor children who had been lost in the
forest, and begged her, for God's sake, to give them lodging.

The woman, seeing that they were good looking children, began to weep, and
said to them, "Alas, poor babies, where are you from? Do you know that
this house belongs to a cruel ogre who eats up little children?"

"Ah! dear madam," answered Little Thumb (who, as well as his brothers, was
trembling all over), "what shall we do? If you refuse to let us sleep here
then the wolves of the forest surely will devour us tonight. We would
prefer the gentleman to eat us, but perhaps he would take pity upon us,
especially if you would beg him to."

The ogre's wife, who believed she could hide them from her husband until
morning, let them come in, and had them to warm themselves at a very good
fire. There was a whole sheep on the spit, roasting for the ogre's supper.

After they warmed up a little, they heard three or four great raps at the
door. This was the ogre, who was come home. Hearing him, she hid them
under the bed and opened the door. The ogre immediately asked if supper
was ready and the wine drawn, and then sat down at the table. The sheep
was still raw and bloody, but he preferred it that way. He sniffed about
to the right and left, saying, "I smell fresh meat."

His wife said, "You can smell the calf which I have just now killed and
flayed."

"I smell fresh meat, I tell you once more," replied the ogre, looking
crossly at his wife, "and there is something here which I do not
understand."

As he spoke these words he got up from the table and went directly to the
bed. "Ah, hah!" he said. "I see then how you would cheat me, you cursed
woman; I don't know why I don't eat you as well. It is fortunate for you
that you are tough old carrion. But here is good game, which has luckily
arrived just in time to serve to three ogre friends who are coming here to
visit in a day or two."

With that he dragged them out from under the bed, one by one. The poor
children fell upon their knees, and begged his pardon; but they were
dealing with one of the cruelest ogres in the world. Far from having any
pity on them, he had already devoured them with his eyes. He told his wife
that they would be delicate eating with good savory sauce. He then took a
large knife, and, approaching the poor children, sharpened it on a large
whetstone which he held in his left hand.

He had already taken hold of one of them when his wife said to him, "Why
do it now? Is it not tomorrow soon enough?"

"Hold your chatter," said the ogre; "they will be more tender, if I kill
them now."

"But you have so much meat already," replied his wife. "You have no need
for more. Here are a calf, two sheep, and half a hog."

"That is true," said the ogre. "Feed them so they don't get too thin, and
put them to bed."

The good woman was overjoyed at this, and offered them a good supper, but
they were so afraid that they could not eat a bit. As for the ogre, he sat
down to drink, being highly pleased that now had something special to
treat his friends. He drank a dozen glasses more than ordinary, which went
to his head and made him sleepy.

The ogre had seven little daughters. These young ogresses all had very
fine complexions, because they ate fresh meat like their father; but they
had little gray eyes, quite round, hooked noses, and very long sharp
teeth, well spaced from each other. As yet they were not overly
mischievous, but they showed great promise for it, for they had already
bitten little children in order to suck their blood.

They had been put to bed early, all seven in a large bed, and each of them
wearing a crown of gold on her head. The ogre's wife gave the seven little
boys a bed just as large and in the same room, then she went to bed to her
husband.

Little Thumb, who had observed that the ogre's daughters had crowns of
gold upon their heads, and was afraid lest the ogre should change his mind
about not killing them, got up about midnight, and, taking his brothers'
caps and his own, went very softly and put them on the heads of the seven
little ogresses, after having taken off their crowns of gold, which he put
on his own head and his brothers', that the ogre might take them for his
daughters, and his daughters for the little boys whom he wanted to kill.

All of this happened according to his plan for, the ogre awakened about
midnight and, regretting that he had put off until morning that which he
might have done tonight, he hastily got out of bed and picked up his large
knife. "Let us see," he said, "how our little rogues are doing! We'll not
make that mistake a second time!"

He then went, groping all the way, into his daughters' room. He came to
the bed where the little boys lay. They were all fast asleep except Little
Thumb, who was terribly afraid when he felt the ogre feeling about his
head, as he had done about his brothers'. Feeling the golden crowns, the
ogre said, "That would have been a terrible mistake. Truly, I did drink
too much last night."

Then he went to the bed where the girls lay. Finding the boys' caps on
them, he said, "Ah, hah, my merry lads, here you are. Let us get to work."
So saying, and without further ado, he cut all seven of his daughters'
throats. Well pleased with what he had done, he went to bed again to his
wife.

As soon as Little Thumb heard the ogre snore, he wakened his brothers and
told them to put on their clothes immediately and to follow him. They
stole softly down into the garden, and climbed over the wall. They kept
running nearly the whole night, trembling all the while, and not knowing
which way they were going.

The ogre, when he awoke, said to his wife, "Go upstairs and dress those
young rascals who came here last night."

The ogress was very much surprised at this goodness of her husband, not
dreaming how he intended that she should dress them, thinking that he had
ordered her to go and put their clothes on them, she went up, and was
horribly astonished when she saw her seven daughters with their throats
cut and lying in their own blood.

She fainted away, for this is the first expedient almost all women find in
such cases. The ogre, fearing his wife would be too long in doing what he
had ordered, went up himself to help her. He was no less amazed than his
wife at this frightful spectacle.

"What have I done?" he cried. "Those wretches shall soon pay for this!" He
threw a pitcher of water on his wife's face, and, having brought her to
herself, cried, "Bring me my seven-league boots at once, so that I can
catch them."

He went out, and ran this way and that over a vast amount of ground. At
last he came to the very road where the poor children were, and not more
than a hundred paces from their father's house. They saw the ogre coming,
who was stepping from mountain to mountain, and crossing over rivers as
easily as if they were little streams. Little Thumb hid himself and his
brothers in a nearby hollow rock, all the while keeping watch on the ogre.

The ogre was very tired from his long and fruitless journey (for
seven-league boots are very tiring to wear), and decided to take a rest.
By chance he sat on the rock where the little boys had hid themselves. He
was so tired that he fell asleep, and began to snore so frightfully that
the poor children were no less afraid of him than when he had held up his
large knife and was about to cut their throats. However, Little Thumb was
not as frightened as his brothers were, and told them that they
immediately should run away towards home while the ogre was asleep so
soundly, and that they should not worry about him. They took his advice,
and soon reached home. Little Thumb came up to the ogre, pulled off his
boots gently and put them on his own feet. The boots were very long and
large, but because they were enchanted, they became big or little to fit
the person who was wearing them. So they fit his feet and legs as well as
if they had been custom made for him. He immediately went to the ogre's
house, where he saw his wife crying bitterly for the loss of her murdered
daughters.

"Your husband," said Little Thumb, "is in very great danger. He has been
captured by a gang of thieves, who have sworn to kill him if he does not
give them all his gold and silver. At the very moment they were holding
their daggers to his throat he saw me, and begged me to come and tell you
the condition he is in. You should give me everything he has of value,
without keeping back anything at all, for otherwise they will kill him
without mercy. Because his case is so very urgent, he lent me his boots
(you see I have them on), that I might make the more haste and to show you
that he himself has sent me to you."

The good woman, being sadly frightened, gave him all she had, for although
this ogre ate up little children, he was a good husband. Thus Little Thumb
got all the ogre' s money. He returned with it to his father's house,
where he was received with great joy.

There are many people who do not agree with this last detail. They claim
that Little Thumb never robbed the ogre at all, that he only made off with
the seven-league boots, and that with a good conscience, because the
ogre's only use of them was to pursue little children. These folks affirm
that they are quite sure of this, because they have often drunk and eaten
at the woodcutter's house.

These people claim that after taking off the ogre's boots, Little Thumb
went to court, where he learned that there was much concern about the
outcome of a certain battle and the condition of a certain army, which was
two hundred leagues off. They say that he went to the king, and told him
that, if he desired it, he would bring him news from the army before
night. The king promised him a great sum of money if he could do so.
Little Thumb was as good as his word, and returned that very same night
with the news. This first feat brought him great fame, and he could then
name his own price. Not only did the king pay him very well for carrying
his orders to the army, but the ladies of the court paid him handsomely to
bring them information about their lovers. Occasionally wives gave him
letters for their husbands, but they paid so poorly, that he did not even
bother to keep track of the money he made in this branch of his business.

After serving as a messenger for some time and thus acquiring great
wealth, he went home to his father, where he was received with
inexpressible joy. He made the whole family very comfortable, bought
positions for his father and brothers, all the while handsomely looking
after himself as well.

Moral:

It is no affliction to have many children, if they all are good
looking, courteous, and strong, but if one is sickly or slow-witted, he
will be scorned, ridiculed, and despised. However, it is often the little
urchin who brings good fortune to the entire family.